Affluenza: The All-Consuming Epidemic [Paperback]

Every once in awhile, you come across a book that manages to strike a core and stick with you long after you're finished reading it. It really made me stop and think at how wasteful and materialistic my own life and habits have become. I don't entirely blame myself however, for I am simply another victim of this plague, a sickness that has completely taken over America and is far worse than the flu or common cold...

All one needs to do is look around them and see how far this once mighty and proud nation has fallen. There's something about the Christmas season that changes people's entire personalities-and not for the better. Witness the spectacle of those two guys battling it out at Wal-Mart shortly after the holiday shopping season started... Take a look at how lazy and spoiled rotten this generation is, and yet they still complain and want more and MORE. Witness how materialistic our own adult lives have become, as we move into bigger and bigger homes and drive vehicles large enough to hold an elephant! Look at the amount of waste and trash that we're sending to our landfills and dumps every single day. Read about the girl who simply ran out of closet space to store all her clothes. See how this throw-away society has made us rely on shoddy products and cheap goods that are manufactured in China from slave labor. Think about that the next time you fill your cart up at Wal-Mart! I read this book and came away with a profound awakening of the world around me, and how much our lives and behavior are influenced by society, our fellow Americans, and the media. I now see things a little differently, and have come to understand why America is the way it is today. We have made a god out of consumerism, materialism, and credit. The unholy trinity of capitalism. I remember someone once saying that if you took the credit cards away from everyone, then stores would cease to exist. How true that is!

As another poster just mentioned, the holidays have now come and gone, and the onslaught of credit card debt has reached record proportions. I read somewhere awhile ago that most Americans are only two paychecks away from financial disaster. More people file for bankruptcy each year in America than graduate from college! Our kids have been dumbed down to the point that they are completely unable to function when they go off into the "real world" and look for gainful employment... We are swamped with commercials and ads everywhere we turn. From TV and magazines, to subway ads and radio broadcasts, we are repeatedly reminded to BUY BUY BUY and CHARGE CHARGE CHARGE! Bigger, better, faster, fancier. Newer is not always better. We keep pursuing more and more, yet we fail to realize that the majority of what we have already is mostly useless junk that serves no practical purpose except to take up valuable space in our attics or garage!

As I finished the book, I came to the conclusion that we're all pretty much screwed, financially, environmentally and emotionally, UNLESS we can stop this stupidity and reverse this suicidal trend before it's too late. Good luck to everyone as we enter the second half of this decade. We're all going to need it.

I originally purchased this book with the intention of having my strongly held beliefs regarding consumerism and materialism verified. I expected this read to consist primarily of me nodding my head in agreement as the authors trumpeted the evils of the consumerist lifestyle and brought their years of research and experience in this area to bear on this so very relevant and problematic issue. However, this did not turn out to be the case. After about page 10 I realised that something was wrong with this book and it had nothing to do with a lack of knowledge, experience or literary skill.
It is hard to criticise a book whose core arguments, underlying philosophy and general world view you agree with, but this book is filled with so much garbage science and biased logic it is impossible to award it special treatment for being right, as it is right for all the wrong reasons.

I am a scientific person and a realist. I am an avid environmentalist and have even removed my television because I believe it is a bad influence. For work, I conduct economic research for a university in Sydney, and as such I believe that the plausibility for any argument is based primarily on its supporting facts and underlying logic. For someone of my persuasion, this book is an arduous medley of disparate quotations, faulty logic and 'feel-good' exoneration. Do you feel "restless", "bored", "unsatisfied" or "de-individualized"? Well, dont worry its not your fault, its the evil corporations and mass media "which deliberately attempts to exploit them (consumers) by offering new products... repressing their individuality... and promises to fill the emptiness" (p.80). This is just one of the BS arguments that is presented over and over again in this book without any justification. Why feel guilty when you know you can blame someone else? And who else is easier to vilify than the money-grubbing corporations and advertisers who try to "vitiate the true purposes, dignity and savour of life". I can hear the shackles of the proletariat cracking already.

This book in a pseudo-Marxist tirade on capitalism and its uneven allocation of resources, which is fine in my books, and the main premise of this book promotes some form of idyll over continual industrial and technological expansion, but instead of offering a philosophy of their own they just bunch together a collection of random quotes on anti-consumerism. This is one of this books biggest failings - they never even alude to 'why' materialism and the capitalist system is wrong, they dont attempt to provide an alternative philosophy or why the alternative lifestyle they promote is superior or even justified. Instead they simply try to entice the reader with the promise that all your worries and hardship will evaporate when you give up the consumerist lifestyle and adopt something more minimalist. It is cold-reading and scapegoating at its worst.

They say that people are working too hard, the hours they work are too long and they are forgoing the more meaningful pursuits of life in exchange for more stuff. That overwork is a primary cause of depression, divorce, listlessness, the break down of the family unit, stroke, cancer and car accidents. This point is argued over and over in this book, without any scientific support. Have these authors never considered the possibility that people may gain satisfaction from working hard and being the best they can be? That their work may be helping society or improving our understanding of the universe? Would you tell an olympic athlete who is dedicated to being the best that he shouldn't train so hard? Or that a charity worker shouldn't go overseas because it could put strain on their relationships at home? For anyone who believes that hard work and dedication are virtues, this book will be head-shakingly irritating.

However bad these problems, it is the logical contradictions and scientific solecisms made on almost every page (!) that is the real failing of this book. In one chapter they will argue that product homogenization is destroying individuality and in the next chapter say that the huge diversity of products is clouding our ability to make the 'right' decisions (chp 10 and 11). They will quote the statistic on the increase in the average work week, then quote the statistic on the rise in sleep deprivation, and then quote the number of car accidents resulting from people falling asleep at the wheel and without any justification say that working too hard causes car accidents (p.45). They run a double standard for profiteering corporations and environmental conservationists (p.56, 61 &186). They lack a basic understanding of the economic concepts of purchasing power parity, the measurement of GDP or efficiency wages, although they quote these economic variables to support their arguments freely. I couldn't possibly list every questionable or downright BS argument they make, but suffice it to say that every time I read something I disagreed with I would note down next to it why and mark the page with a fold in the corner. Well, my copy of Affluenze is now more than three times as thick as the original as 2 out of every 3 pages is folded.

I found this book and its corrupt form of argument unsatisfying and irksome. Other peoples quotes make up 50% of the book (and 95% of the valid points) and almost none of the ideas in the book are original. This book completely misses the point about why consumerism is bad; that its is wrong to judge people based upon the value of their possessions or the degree of their celebrity; that capitalism is a goal-less exercise that destroys the environment for the sake of 'individual utility' and a 'keeping up with the jones' arms race; that we (eukacaryotes) have battled through half a billion years of evolution just to squander everything Earth has to offer in a final outburst of maximising our emotional indulgence.

Affluenza has its heart in the right place but unfortunately fails in the execution, which is a shame since the message of the book is dead on. Western society has a serious problem with mass consumption brought on by media, politics and societal institutions. Studies have shown that people who simplify their lives and consume less, are actually happier in the long run.

The bulk of Affluenza sums up the issues from various different angles. It delves into the history of consumerism and how interest groups have their hold on the current system. As the book progresses it hints as various solutions to the problems which are pretty much of the buy less, drive less and eat less meat variety.

My problem with Affluenza is twofold. The book is poorly written and I'm referring mostly to the pacing. It will bring up a topic and quickly start describing a fictional family in some hokey situation to try to bring the point home. This gets old before it even begins and just doesn't work. The authors focus too long on most points and the I quickly started scanning through complete chapters that really offered little insight that logical people haven't already concluded.

This brings me to my next point....who is this book meant for? It's very preaching when it should be engaging. The people I know who would be interested in this book would find it too pedestrian because of their high knowledge content of the topic already. The people who should read this probably wouldn't be able to get through a third of it. This brings up the more important question of how to reach the general public on important issues that require people to sacrifice.

Bottom Line: Credits to the authors for the purpose, research and effort, but there is a very selective few I would give this book to.